Rural Families and Households in Post-Socialist Transition: Serbian Experience1

Abstract

Rural families and households make a basic framework for understanding the rural way of life. !is relation is especially interesting under the recent and di"cult post-socialist transition in places such as Serbia. Previous research has shown that the transition and its bene#ts are not distributed equally. !is has induced social and economic disparities, at the expense of the social attractiveness of rural areas. !ese disparities have in$uenced characteristics of Serbian rural families and households, their survival strategies and their roles in the reproduction of the rural way of life. We started research with three assumptions: a) depopulation of Serbian rural areas continues under the post-socialist transition, b) transitional risks produce partial retraditionalization of Serbian rural family relationships, and c) characteristics of Serbian regions a%ect characteristics of rural families and households. !e analysis con#rmed rural depopulation. In the decade 2002–2011, there was the most signi#cant decline ever in the number of Serbian rural families. !is signi#ed the negative impact of transition on rural areas. Besides this, the research con#rmed that contemporary Serbian rural families and households still 1 Paper is a part of the project research Sustainable agriculture and rural development in function of achieving strategic goals of the Republic of Serbia within the Danube region (No. III46006), #nanced by the Republic of Serbia’s Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development. DOI: 10.1515/eec-2015-0003 Jovana Čikić, Marica Petrović 36 have some traditional features (multiple generations, relics of the role of head of the traditional rural family) which enable them to cope with transitional risks. A third #nding proved that characteristics of Serbian rural families and households depend on regional characteristics. Within the regions that are more socially attractive and where the risks of social exclusion are lower, retraditionalization of rural families is less noticeable. It can be concluded that contemporary Serbian rural families and households survive throughout transition periods depending on their characteristics, but also characteristics of their social environment. Stronger social magnetism of a region is manifested in stronger rural social vitality. !at is re$ected in stronger modernization of rural families and households.